In general, electronic components using a ceramic material such as a capacitor, an inductor, a piezoelectric device, a varistor, a thermistor, or the like, include a ceramic body formed of a ceramic material, internal electrodes formed in the ceramic body, and external electrodes provided on a surface or surfaces of the ceramic body to be connected to the internal electrodes.
Among ceramic electronic components, a multilayer ceramic capacitor includes a plurality of stacked dielectric layers, internal electrodes disposed to face each other with respective dielectric layers interposed therebetween, and external electrodes electrically connected to the internal electrodes.
A multilayer ceramic capacitor has been widely used as a component for a mobile communications device such as a computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile phone, or the like, due to advantages thereof such as a small size, a high capacitance, ease of mountability, and the like.
In general, a multilayer ceramic capacitor is manufactured by stacking layers of a conductive paste for an internal electrode and a dielectric paste using a sheet method, a printing method, or the like, and then sintering the stacked layers of paste.
Electrical features of the multilayer ceramic capacitor are changed according to the type and features of dielectric powder contained in the dielectric paste.
Therefore, in order to manufacture a multilayer ceramic capacitor having a high degree of reliability, a dielectric composition having high permittivity and excellent high-temperature characteristics is required.